A sheriff has blasted a “thoroughly unpleasant” boyfriend who snatched his weeping partner’s mobile phone out of her hand and tossed it from a moving taxi on the A90.
John Lawson was then forced out of the cab and abandoned at the side of the dual carriageway between Perth and Dundee.
The 42-year-old appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted a domestically-aggravated charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner during the taxi journey through Perthshire.
Lawson, of Broughty Ferry Road, Dundee, was spared jail and ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.
He must also stay away from his ex-partner for two years as part of a non-harassment order, despite the court being told the woman was against such an order and had asked for the charge to be dropped.
‘Thoroughly unpleasant individual’
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told Lawson: “The impression given by both the offence and the content of the social work report is undoubtedly that, as far as females are concerned, you are a thoroughly unpleasant individual.
“You consider that you are the person in control and that if you say jump, a woman’s response to should be how high?
“There is a huge temptation as far as I am concerned to take your liberty away.”
The sheriff added: “You are 42 now and I suspect that this attitude is already well ingrained in you.
“No matter what I say today won’t make a blind bit of difference.
“You will probably leave here and mutter something derogatory under your breath about me.
“Hey ho, that goes with the territory.”
He told Lawson he was weighing up sending him to jail.
“I am somewhat reluctantly not going to take that course with you,” he said.
Girlfriend in tears
Fiscal depute Duncan McKenzie said that on May 31, a taxi driver at Perth railway station noticed Lawson’s girlfriend standing outside, speaking on her phone and crying.
“The taxi driver was asked by Mr Lawson for a lift to Dundee.
“He agreed and Mr Lawson sat in the front, while his partner got in the back seat.
“The driver could see she was still upset and on her phone.”
Lawson asked the woman who she was speaking to.
“My dad,” she replied, and terminated the call.
“Mr Lawson then launched himself between the two front seats,” said Mr McKenzie.
“He seized hold of the complainer’s mobile phone.
“He went through her phone and then threw it out of the taxi window.
“At this point, they were travelling on the A90 near to the Glendoick Garden Centre.”
The taxi driver pulled into the next layby and Lawson left the car.
“He then drove off, leaving Mr Lawson at the side of the road,” the fiscal depute said.
“The complainer was taken to her home.”
Mr McKenzie said the complainer was “not in support” of a non-harassment order and had contacted his office to ask for the case to be dropped.
Solicitor Paul Ralph, defending, said: “I understand that the phone was recovered and it was intact, for what it’s worth.”
He added: “This a relationship that is capable of possibly being repaired.”
For more local court content visit our page or join us on Facebook.
